Obama has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to “urgently probe” the unsubstantiated claim that the Syrian government used chemical weapons on civilians outside Damascus this week. Within hours of the alleged attack, France called for a “reaction with force” and American politicians, led by Arizona Senator John McCain, demanded an immediate attack on Syria.

CNN mulls options for illegal Syrian intervention.

“It is long past time for the United States and our friends and allies to respond to Assad’s continuing mass atrocities in Syria with decisive actions, including limited military strikes to degrade Assad’s air power and ballistic missile capabilities,” said McCain, who is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Obama hinted the United States is now working to arrange a consensus ahead on an attack. “If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work,” he said.

“Sometimes what we’ve seen is that folks will call for immediate action, jumping into stuff, that does not turn out well,” he said in response to McCain and the neocons in Congress pushing for immediate military action. “We have to think through strategically what’s going to be in our long-term national interests, even as we work cooperatively internationally to do everything we can to put pressure on those who would kill innocent civilians.”

Following earlier disputed chemical attacks in Syria, Obama signed off on arms shipments to the CIA’s mercenaries in the country. The latest supposed attack, characterized as a false flag provocation by Russia, may result in further escalation of the war by assorted proxies, including the disorganized Free Syrian Army, the ruthless al-Nusra Front and Iraqi affiliates of al-Qaeda.

In addition to meeting with top officials at the European Union, the United Nations and in Jordan, Qatar and Turkey, the last two playing instrumental roles in the ongoing attempt to undermine the al-Assad government, Secretary of State John Kerry met with the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Assi Jarba.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Ahmad Jarba, who replaced Moaz al-Khatib as president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, has close ties with the government of Saudi Arabia.

The timing of the alleged chemical attack and the probability of a Western military response following a cursory investigation and a rubber stamped United Nations imprimatur for an attack on Syria could not have arrived at a more opportune time.

“The situation in Syria is now desperate,” declared Jarba during a meeting with Kerry prior to the supposed chemical attack.

Objective observers admit that the CIA’s proxies, despite their radical Sunni extremism and numerous massacres – in Jisr Al-Shugur, in the Alawi village of Hatla in Deir Al-Zor, the disputed attack in the town of Taldou (known as the Houla massacre), and the horrific massacre at Tal Abyad (450 Kurd civilians, including more than 120 children, murdered by the Turkish supported al-Nusra Front) – are losing the terror war against al-Assad and his highly disciplined military.